Etymologically
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cuminum

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kʊˈmiː.nũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [kuˈmiː.num][1]

Forms

cumīnum n (genitive cumīnī); second declension[1] It is also spelled cymīnum.[2][3] Late Latin has cimīnum and comīnum.[4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κύμινον (kúminon, “cumin”).[2][6][5][1] The Greek word is ultimately Semitic;[1] Köbler compares Akkadian kamūnu.[7] The grammarian Velius Longus notes that the Latin word renders the Greek one.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL's first examples are in Cato's book on farming, which has roasted cumin.[5] Köbler's first source is Varro.[7]

Semantic evolution

It is the plant cumin or its seed, used as a spice and a drug.[2] Cumin was thought to make people pale:[3] Horace says his imitators would drink bloodless cumin if he happened to be pale, and his commentator Porphyrio explains that cumin dissolved and drunk makes one pale;[5] Persius speaks of the seeds of pale cumin.[5] Petronius has a dish that seemed to lack pepper and cumin, and Pliny the Elder says that those who sow cumin pray that it will not come up.[5] Celsus and Columella use it in remedies,[5] and Apicius uses it for cumin oil.[4]

It survives in cumino, comino and cumin.[1]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato, of roasted cumin.[5][7]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it.[4][7]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace, of cumin that makes one pale.[5][3][7]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder, on sowing cumin.[5][7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. cumin, the plant or its seed, used as a spice and a drug.[2][3][1]
  2. Cumin oil.[4]

Word family

  • cuminatus
  • cumininus
  • English cumin

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  7. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de